TODAYONLINE.COM WE SET YOU THINKING SUNDAY, 5 APRIL 2015 SPECIAL EDITION MCI (P) 088/09/2014 The tributes to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew continue to flow as life returns to normal at a market at Toa Payoh Lorong 8 on Wednesday, three days after the State Funeral Service. PHOTO: WEE TECK HIAN REMEMBERING MR LEE KUAN YEW SPECIAL ISSUE 2 REMEMBERING LEE KUAN YEW Tribute cards for the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew by the PCF Sparkletots Preschool (Bukit Gombak Branch) teachers and students displayed at the Chua Chu Kang tribute centre. PHOTO: KOH MUI FONG COMMENTARY Where does Singapore go from here? died a few hours earlier, he said: “I am for some, more bearable. Servicemen the funeral of a loved one can tell you, CARL SKADIAN grieved beyond words at the passing of and other volunteers went about their the hardest part comes next, when the DEPUTY EDITOR Mr Lee Kuan Yew. I know that we all duties quietly, eiciently, even as oi- frenzy of activity that has kept the mind feel the same way.” cials worked to revise plans that had busy is over. I think the Prime Minister expected to be adjusted after their irst contact Alone, without the necessary and his past week, things have been, many Singaporeans to mourn the loss, with a grieving nation. fortifying distractions of a period of T how shall we say … diferent but even he must have been surprised Last Sunday, about 100,000 people mourning in the company of others, in Singapore. by just how many did. lined the streets to bid Mr Lee goodbye we now have to collect our thoughts, These were the Quiet Hours. After As of the last telling, close to two as he embarked on his inal journey, make sense of what exactly it is that we a frenzied week, when Singapore ca- million people headed to Parliament despite the buckets that rained down. have lost, and igure out how to move reened from grief to the need to say House and the various tribute centres Many more were glued to TV screens, on from here. thanks, and then back to mourning set up around the island to pay their wherever they could ind them, to watch So, what now? and grief again, life has settled back respects and to remember the found- the funeral procession and service. It If we can learn anything from the into more familiar rhythms. ing Prime Minister of Singapore in seemed as if an entire nation came to a reams of newspaper copy put out over The national colours have luttered their own ways. How many more did halt when the Singapore Civil Defence the seven-day period of national mourn- proudly atop lagpoles again, black rib- so at temples, mosques, churches or at Force sounded the alert for a minute of ing, from the blanket coverage on tel- bons have been taken down from Fa- home, with friends and family or alone, silence to be observed. evision and radio, the endless chatter cebook proiles, Parliament House and we’ll never know. Now, the oicial mourning period in the digital ether, it is this: Mr Lee the Padang have fallen quiet. The seemingly-endless queues gave is over, and there is that enemy of the was an exceptional man, and he built And yet … rise to their own ecosystem of Good Sa- grieving to contend with: Time. Af- an exceptional country. When Prime Minister Lee Hsien maritans who spontaneously turned up ter the frenzy of activity, Singapore But — and there is always a but Loong appeared on national televi- to give out water, food, umbrellas and now has time to catch its breath and — this fact presents its own set sion at 8am on Monday, March 23, to other creature comforts to make the ponder the week that was. As anyone of challenges. announce that Mr Lee Kuan Yew had wait, which ran into as long as 10 hours who has been through the hell that is For someone like me, who grew up in SUNDAY 5 APRIL 2015 early Singapore, the startling changes nominee for the post of national police together to pledge ourselves to continue that have taken place have not seemed chief, outed as a suspect in a bribery building this exceptional country. as phenomenal as they ought to be. It case, was later cleared of charges by a “Let us shape this island nation into has been more of a process of osmosis court, while the leader who nominated one of the great cities in the world, re- — a skyscraper comes up here, a new him faces questions about why the can- lecting the ideals he stood for, realising rail station there, ungainly Hawker didacy was dropped. the dreams he inspired, and worthy of Hunters blossom into sleek F15SG Ea- Look all around you. the people who have made Singapore gles soaring over National Day Parades, Look at the pictures in the follow- our home and nation.” one generation of able leaders morphs ing pages that show kings, a former For Mr Lee, many of the Old Guard into the next, policies debated in one American President and the sitting leaders, and some members of the Pio- term are brought to fruition in the next, leader of a nation of over a billion people neer Generation, the words of Mr Lee even if the debate has become sharper, in attendance for the funeral of a man Hsien Yang, in his eulogy at the crema- more cantankerous. who once — in an almost distant time tion service at Mandai, are appropri- This is the natural order of things, — led a tiny nation of just ive million. ate: “Your work is done and your rest is it not? Look around you the next time you are is richly deserved.” Growing up in a Catholic school, I in the immigration queue at an airport For those of my generation, who have had hantam bola buddies of every con- in Australia or the United States, and gone from two-roomers in Tanglin Halt ceivable stripe. Folks of my generation ask yourself what right you have to be to better things, from kopi-o kosong in have an easy familiarity with “Selamat in the line for automated clearance. recycled condensed milk tins to Kopi Hari Raya”, “Happy Deepavali”; Mus- That is the great Myth of Singapore Luwak, and, yes, from Third World to lims say a cheery “Merry Christmas” to Exceptionalism, that this is the natural First, Mr Lee will have our enduring Christians, who reciprocate with gifts order of things. gratitude. We are champion grumblers, of fare, carefully prepared to ensure It is the vision of one man, and the and we have moaned about the muz- non-halal ingredients are avoided. We hard work of those he led, that has given zling of some Opposition voices, about gather on weekends, a veritable GRC rise to this. It is too easy to be compla- the endless chiding and cajoling from of buddies, similar despite our difer- cent, to think that things have always on high, and about the policies that ences, engaging in the raucous banter been this way, and that they will remain gave some quarters in the West cause that only the sharing of a single tongue so no matter what we do. Too easy to to accuse us — in not so kind terms would allow. think the world owes us living. That — of being little more than sheep for- Girlfriends and boyfriends, hus- we’re small but tough, that those ads ever following a shepherd in search of bands and wives, children, more and which advertise our muscular prowess greener grazing grounds, never mind more, families and lovers look diferent at half-time of the football game are the routes he took us on. from the way they did in the past. But enough to keep Singapore where it is, But deep down, we know life has there are no second looks, no raised and that it’s perhaps time we took our gotten better year by year. In the ver- eyebrows when a newspaper columnist collective foot of the gas pedal, because, nacular of today’s generation, we have describes his children as “Chindians”. well, look how far we’ve come! moaned about First World problems. This is the natural order of things, In the Quiet Hours, let your thoughts Champion grumblers, indeed. is it not? drift to where complacency will lead us, But for those for whom the events At school, in army camps, at work, because if it was one thing Mr Lee kept of the week of national mourning were WE SET YOU THINKING no one bothers if you grew up in a two- reminding us about, it is that we have their irst personal brush with the his- room lat in Tanglin Halt, as I did, or a no right to be here. We’ve crashed the tory that Mr Lee created, the words of EDITOR six-room bungalow in Namly Drive, as party. Now, we have to keep proving the Prime Minister should resonate WALTER FERNANDEZ a primary school classmate did. There that we belong. more. A gauntlet has been thrown DEPUTY EDITOR are so many scholars whose parents are Look around you. down. Will it be picked up? CARL SKADIAN hawkers and taxi drivers that these sto- There is one other thing our minds For many who were in the queues, ASSOCIATE EDITORS ries have become boring, routine, not should drift to in the Quiet Hours, at tribute centres, lining the streets LOH CHEE KONG worth a mention in the news.